I made macarons today for the first time. Having never made them or even tasted one before I was a little worried they wouldn’t turn out. But they did! I used Sprinklebakes recipe. It was easy to follow and fun to make.

The recipe was quite intensive, what with grinding and toasting almonds and browning butter and such. So I’m a little disappointed they didn’t turn out right. They’re not bad, just a little chewier than they should be. Probably over mixed.

Now this cake:

This cake was delicious! I whipped it up quick for a friends farewell party. It went over very well.

Today I tried my hand at making some molded chocolates. Well, I used candy melts so there isn’t any chocolate in them. I used vanilla flavored pink melts for the outside and mixed white and pink candy melts with a bit of whipping cream to make the centers. Check the Wilton site for the recipe. The candies look cute but are super sweet. I can’t wait to try this with real chocolate.

It seems like people are liking the cookies that I posted yesterday, so am going to show you how I made them.

Since I did not have an owl cutter, I used a the foot portion of a stocking shaped cutter to make the shape I needed. I cut one, then flipped the cookie dough cutout and cut it again.

Reading Sweet Sugar Belle’s blog really inspired me to not only make cookies as Christmas gifts, but to be creative with my cookie cutters. Take a look at her blog for some amazing cookies and inspiration.

After cutting the owls out, I used a small heart cutter to mark the face area, making sure not to cut through the dough.

After baking and cooling. I used ivory royal icing to fill in the face area. I dropped in royal icing eyes that I had previously made.

I didn’t take photos of the next steps, so I will just explain.

I then used brown icing to make the wings. When the face and wings were dry, I filled in the body with a lighter brown. While it was still wet, I used the darker brown to make three lines across the chest. Then using a toothpick I dragged lines through the icing starting from below the three brown lines.
To finish I used orange icing to make the beak and toes.

Hi, so It’s been a super long time since I last wrote. Lots of stuff happened, crappy stuff and fun stuff. I got a freakin’ cool new camera, a Pentax K200. I love it! And I got my hair cut all pretty.

Some other fun stuff that happened: 1) Art Board Show and Auction (and BBQ). My board is posted below, it sold for $100. 2) Canada Day booth for work 3) Megan’s show at the Centre. I am very proud of her. 4) Street Performers booth for work. Paper bag puppets below 5) Super cool encaustic class I attended. I will definitelypost my sample soon. 6) I made some super cool moving mouth puppets, I will post them as soon as I get some pics. 7) Candace’s B-day surprise. We had a little party for my boss. Ice cream cake and balloon animal twisting! Too much fun!

As for the crappy stuff, no one wants to know. 🙂 Now on to the pictures!

This is a bug that was on my deck. It’s coloring is just amazing!

Here’s a close up of the same picture.

Here’s a little sparrow in my backyard. His mouth is full of tasty bugs for his babies.

Looking down over the railing of the dock, we found this American Coot sitting on her nest. I kept calling her Harriet, but My brother said her name was Veil (from some game he plays) so we named her Harriet Veil.

These are her 7 eggs. When we went back a few days later, they had already hatched and the family had moved on.

Bird on a cattail.

The skateboard I made for the Art Board Show and Auction. It is collaged with magazine paper and then painted. I also cut the sides off and attached them to the back. They are the black parts.

This is what I do at work! We don’t have time much fun all the time, but we do pretty often. Mine is the middle one and my boss and co-worker made the other two. They were samples for our booth at the Street Performers Festival. I drew 2 sheets of features and accessories to choose from. The kids had a blast making them, but not as much as the volunteers!

This is the birthday cake I made for my Dad in June. I used the cake pans I got from that garage sale. It was my first tiered cake, it was a bit lopsided, but I think it turned out pretty good. It sure tasted yummy!

A seagull at the lake. It has some sort of fish or leech in it’s beak.

A pic of me!

Another picture of me showing off my new hair and new camera!

Well, that’s enough for now. I promise to update more frequently. See you soon!